“You are being presented with a choice: evolve or remain. If you choose to remain unchanged, you will be presented with the same challenges, the same routine, the same storms, the same situations, until you learn from them, until you love yourself enough to say “no more”, until you choose change.

If you choose to evolve, you will connect with the strength within you, you will explore what lies outside the comfort zone, you will awaken to love, you will become, you will be. You have everything you need.

Choose to evolve. Choose love.”

-Creig Crippen

Travel will evolve you.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here’s a current paradigm that’s keeping people from evolution. This paradigm is not only current. It’s a reoccurring molding we have been fitting ourselves into for a long time. It has been keeping us reluctant to evolve. It is Fear that fits us in this mold and keeps us reluctant. I use Fear with a capital “F” because Fear is a powerful force that, once grappled with, can be seen as having its own shifting identity.

“Through my life I have found, Fear comes in all shapes and sizes, a master of the fortress, a master of disguises.”

-Satsang

Fear causes use to seek comfort and security, thus keeping us from wanting to evolve. Fear also spreads. Once our loved ones have Fear and seek out comfort and security, they often try to make sure that we live within their bubble of comfort, security, and thus, Fear.

I have friends whose families have spent most to all of their lives within the constraints of their own culture. They end up urging my friends to do the same.

“We used to run free, no fear of where we’d go, and we used to love free, not scared of being alone.”

-Satsang

The paradigm is to build a type of prison around ourselves where we’re locked up by bills, insurance, and ethnocentrism. There’s absolutely no issue with having a stable job, house, BMW, and kids. But you have to ask yourself: “Did I absolutely choose this life? Or did I merely let it choose me, and now I’m remaining in it out of the Fear of having to evolve?”

Travel will challenge you.

A challenge is the catalyst to evolution. We cannot evolve without first pushing our own limits. Whether this be through the initial escape from the confines of a life you built around yourself that is no longer meant for you, or through the challenges you will face while exploring new cultures and areas, a challenge is the means to evolve.

Living a life of travel is seen as the ultimate life challenge for many of us. Travel remains a dream too often.

Many people don’t even know where to begin to make it happen. The main challenge for many is converting their spending from objects to experience. It’s possible!

You will evolve to love yourself!

“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

You will love yourself because the way in which taking leaps evolves you stems from how you trust yourself and go against all odds.

The people who will tell you that living a life of travel is a bad idea might not have a very good connection with themselves. Criticism of someone else’s path often stems from a lack of self-connection within the criticizer.

Loving yourself amounts to trusting yourself rather than those who don’t love themselves enough to support your vision.

You will evolve to choose change.

If you travel, you will learn to embrace the challenge of change. You will begin to invite change as a common customer of your lifestyle rather than avoiding the unknown and having Fear.

“There is nothing permanent except change.”

-Heraclitus

Since change is a constant, it’s best to learn to deal with it. Travel is the best (and preferred way) to do this.

Adaptation is being open to different alternatives of where to sleep on any given night during travel. It is getting use to the social constructs within a culture. It is being able to evolve your mindset so you can see different ways of living with a fresh perspective.

I stayed with some old fishermen while exploring Vietnam. They were living on a very secluded island. It was completely depopulated. During my stay, I had to adapt to their lifestyle. They ate in a circle on the floor. For lunch? A white substance they couldn’t give me an English name for. For dinner? Dried fish. Desert? Beer.

I was able to see, understand, and even be a part of their way of life because of my ability to adapt to change. They live off primarily fish. They spend their lives catching and raising fish to help themselves and those they’re close to.

You will connect with the strength within you.

It takes strength to be an explorer. You have to be aware of your surroundings at all times. You have to be literally strong to carry your suitcase. You need to own who you are in order to develop the confidence that will enable you to act and react in all of the right ways.

Travel will help you connect with all of these aspects of yourself.

“I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.

All seems beautiful to me.

Whoever denies me, it shall not trouble me;
Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me.”

-Walt Whitman

You will explore what lies outside the comfort zone.

This brings us back to where we began: escaping Fear. Fear is what will hold is in the comfort zone.

Travel is the perfect catalyst that drives us from Fear, and thus outside of our comfort zone.

You will experience such mind altering experiences during your discoveries of new cultures, people, ways of life, and ideas that you will be ultimately evolve as a human being.

You will awaken to Love.

That’s right! Capital “L” Love! Because this force is so powerful, that it drags us from our ego! Our ego is where Fear thrives. Our ego is what tells us that we can’t. It is what tells us to hold people back, even when they lie within our heart.

Love is what forces the ego into surrender. Love is what destroys Fear. Love is what tells us to trust the universe while traveling. The universe will always take care of you if you live by Love’s side.

“Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here.”

Marianne Williamson